PACA-Albania: MAIN
ACTIVITIES 2009 - 2010

Implementation of the anti-corruption
policy and strategy in Albania and other topical issues
will be addressed at a high-level conference on
‘Anti-corruption Reforms in Albania’ next Monday, 22
November 2010. Prime Minister of the Republic of
Albania, Mr Sali Berisha, Deputy Secretary General of
the Council of Europe, Ms Maud De Boer-Buquicchio, and
Chargé d’Affaires with the European Union Delegation to
Albania Mr Luigi Brusa will speak at the conference
along with other ministers, representatives of
independent institutions and civil society. The event
will be held at the Hotel Tirana International from
16h00 to 19h30.

Following its first year of implementation, the PACA project will hold its third Steering Committee Meeting on 8 September 2010. The Project stands at an important
crossroads as risk analyses of five sectors are set to begin, assistance to the prevention of corruption in the education sector gets fully underway and PACA
assistance to Albania's Anti-corruption Strategy is expected to culminate in a further improved Action Plan for 2011 and standardised reporting on implementation for 2010. The PACA Team will also summarise project achievements in the first 12 months.The meeting will bring together the representative of partners institutions, Delegation of the European Union to Albania and the Council of Europe.

PACA organised a study visit of 12 Albanian prosecutors, police officers, tax and customs’ officers as well as FIU officials to Austrian Ministry of Interior. The study visit was supposed to precede the release of the Manual on the Investigation of Economic Crime and touched upon the main themes of the manual such as the methods of proof deployed in the investigation of economic crime, the use of special investigative techniques in the investigation of economic crime, the use of witnesses and informants in the prosecution of economic crime and inter agency cooperation in the prosecution of economic crime.

Conference on “Prevention of Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing as a Precondition to Albania’s Progress towards European Integration”
(Tirana, Albania, 27-28 April 2010)

The objective of this event was to bring together the actors and obliged entities under the Law on Prevention of Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing and discuss possible further steps to improve the law and its implementation.

On 17 March PACA released two
technical papers, respectively
on the Compatibility of
Albanian Law on the Forfeiture
of Crime Proceeds with
International Standards and
The Applicability of the
Penal Code Provisions on
Criminal Forfeiture and the
Anti-Mafia Law Provisions on
Civil Forfeiture with regard to
Offences of Money Laundering and
Financing of Terrorism. On 17 March PACA released two
technical papers, respectively
on the Compatibility of
Albanian Law on the Forfeiture
of Crime Proceeds with
International Standards and
The Applicability of the
Penal Code Provisions on
Criminal Forfeiture and the
Anti-Mafia Law Provisions on
Civil Forfeiture with regard to
Offences of Money Laundering and
Financing of Terrorism. Following the release of the two
technical papers, on 31 March,
PACA a
roundtable in Durres attended
by the Joint Investigative Units
(a multi disciplinarygroup of
prosecutors and public officials
from other law enforcement
agencies entrusted with the
investigation of economic
crime), prosecutors from the
Serious Crimes Prosecution
Office and the Albanian
Financial Unit. The event was
organized jointly with OPDAT
(Overseas Prosecutorial
Development, Assistance and
Training Program of the US
Government).

Ethics trainings on
local level (Albania,
April 2010)

During March PACA has
helped improve the
training module used by
the Albanian
Training Institute of
Public Administration.
Following the revision
of the module, in
cooperation with the
Training Institute of
Public Administration
and the USAID’s Rule
of Law Project, during
April PACA held 5
trainings with local
government officials on
ethics and the
implementation of the
Law on Conflict of
Interest. Namely the trainings
took place on April 5-6, 2010 in
Elbasan, April 8-9, 2010
in Durres, April 12-13,
2010 in Shkoder, April
15-16, 2010 in Fier, and
April 20-21, 2010 in
Korce.

Project Steering Committee meeting (Tirana, Albania, 10 March 2010)

The PACA Project Steering Committee meeting discussed the implementation of the PACA project during its first six months (from 1 September 2009) and how to move forward on implementation of certain specific project activities, notably the selection of institutions for corruption risk analyses. The meeting took place in the building of the Council of Ministers of Albania.

Implementation
Phase (starting on 1st December
2009)

As the Inception Phase had ended, project’s start-up event took place in Tirana International Hotel with the participation of all PACA stakeholders. The event’s aim was to
review the draft workplan and calendar of activities and adopt their final versions.

INCEPTION PHASE (1 September–30 November
2009)

Tirana, Albania, 18-23 October 2009

A team mission took place in order to
discuss the project and its Workplan
in particular with the main
counterpart (DIACA). The team
composed of CoE Secretariat members
and PACA Team to be deployed in
Tirana, carried out the start-up
technical workshops with the project
beneficiaries aimed at initiating
the design of the workplan of
activities in line with the
project’s logframe.

Strasbourg,
France, 5-9 October 2009

Initial meetings took place in
Strasbourg between the PACA team
representatives and the main project
counterpart (DIACA representatives)
to discuss initial planning of
start-up activities with the main
beneficiary institutions.

Strasbourg,
France, September-October 2009

The recruitment procedures foreseen
for PACA team took place as
planned. As a result the following
team members were recruited and now
contracted to commence work as of 1
December 2009: one Team Leader
(Consultant); one Long -term Adviser
(Consultants); one Local Project
Officer (Secretariat).